In response to a prompt originating with the Painted Bride, Terrell Halsey spent countless hours with Philadelphians all over the city, talking and listening to them – in their homes – about what they would change in their neighborhoods. Halsey, a photographer and graduate of Temple University’s Film and Media program, recorded peoples’ words and photographed them, and the results were recently on view in the exhibition, “Call Home” at iMPeRFeCT Gallery in Germantown, an exhibit in collaboration with Nina “Lyrispect” Ball, who added poetic prose and exhibited poetry. Halsey said of their collaboration, “Our two crafts together made the exhibit special.” We agree! Halsey is an optimist, he tells us in this interview. He believes in the power of community and in sharing ideas and communicating. At a time when isolation has been more prevalent than community, this project and the energy of Halsey’s collaborative exhibition are votes for a better future, together.
Learn more about Terrell Halsey and his art at terrellhalsey.com, and to keep up with the latest, make sure to follow Terrell on Instagram @terrellhalseyart! Learn more about Nina “Lyrispect” Ball at https://www.lyrispect.com/about, and be sure to follow them on Instagram. You can listen to Artblog Radio on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Thank you to Kyle McKay for composing Artblog Radio’s original podcast intro and outro!
Transcription
[00:00:12] Roberta Fallon: Hi everyone, it’s Roberta! Welcome to another episode of Artblog Radio. Thanks for joining us. Today I’m excited to speak with our guest, Terrell Halsey. Hi, Terrell!
[00:00:25] Terrell Halsey: Hi Roberta, and everybody from Artblog! I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
[00:00:30] Roberta: Oh, my God, thank you for being here. We’re very excited too. So I want to say that Terrell is a Philadelphia artist and photographer whose street photography and portraiture puts humans first. I’m very interested in their new COVID inspired project involving community voices, which had its debut exhibition in November at iMPeRFeCT Gallery in Germantown.
So Terrell, we can go anywhere in this conversation, but let’s start by focusing on the most recent project of yours, which is, the exhibit was called “Call Home.” And the idea, as I understand it, was to give a platform to people to express themselves about how they would change their neighborhood. So it was rooted in Philadelphia, in the idea of change, and the idea of neighborhood.
It seems like a perfect project for the times. And so how did you come up with this idea?
[00:01:35] Terrell Halsey: Yeah. So the Painted Bride actually started a series called power to the prompt. So I can’t take credit for the idea. But for building upon it and using my craft to kind of stretch it a bit further. So they had the prompt. If you had a magic wand, what’s one thing you would change about your community. And they send it out to the listserv, they printed it out, they put it around in laundromats and in a lot of different places around Philadelphia, and they wanted to see who would respond. They got over 140 answers. And you know, went through all of the answers and tried to see what were the similarities of the things that were being proposed.
And they ended up not necessarily being wishes or, you know, speaking from a magic wand standpoint, but more so people speaking about issues that they felt were plaguing their community. A lot of things came up, from gentrification, to more equitable education to schools all around Philadelphia, to gun violence, some people mentioned, you know, trash, some people mentioned you know, I wish properties could get repaired, and more home ownership. So a lot of different varying things. And it was my task to figure out what to do with all of these voices, with all of these answers, with all of these concerns. And as photographer, of course, my first instinct was to give them a direct voice, give face to the voice. And to go meet them where they’re at.
I reached back out to (os) and Laurel at Painted Bride, and I asked if we can actually have their contact info. I reached out to the participants and I sent a Calendly link, and I just stated whoever would like to take the next step, I’d like to go to your community, or your home, and I’d like to photograph you. And we want to put your voice first, and hear about your story and your experience here in Philadelphia.
That was the beginning of this project. Just me going to people’s homes, and people welcoming me into their homes, and being comfortable enough to share their experiences with me. It was an amazing experience. I met a lot of amazing community leaders, a lot of amazing, beautiful people were just willing to just share. We talked for… with some people I talked for an hour, hour and a half, before we even started our portrait session, just to hear where they’re coming from, and just to get that connection with them, and let them kind of drop their guard before we started shooting.
Yeah, that was the basis of the project. I just wanted to go out, photograph the people and see what comes of it after that.
[00:04:33] Roberta: That’s amazing. Did you audio record also so that you captured their words?
[00:04:39] Terrell Halsey: I did. I did thank you for asking that. So I also thought it would be nice to make somewhat of a film. So I did record kind of like an interview, just saying the prompt, if you had a magic wand, what’s one thing you would change and I let them answer it.
And some people talked for another three minutes about home, the feeling of home, what is home? What are the things that make you feel comfortable at home? What are the things that don’t make you feel comfortable at home? Like with gentrification, you know, I had people saying like, what happens when one of the people who you’re familiar with are being like spread out, they’re no longer around anymore? Or the things that you’re familiar with are changing, and it doesn’t seem like it’s for you or your community that’s been there?
So that theme of home, it just kept… it kept hitting, it kept hitting, and it kept hitting, to the point that we knew we had to include that in the title. It became a central theme, so…
[00:05:42] Roberta: Oh, that’s so interesting, cause I was wondering where the title of your exhibit came from. The title of the exhibit is “Call Home” and you know, that could be interpreted various ways.
And I guess I went to a pop culture reference before I went elsewhere (laughs) to the movie E T, which I think probably most everybody has seen at this point? It’s a very old movie. But the, the thing that E.T. Keeps saying, cause he’s isolated, is “E.T. phone home.” He wants to go home. And so, home is a very important thing, especially when you’re isolated.
Did you pick up on people’s isolation at all, when they were talking about this? Did COVID become sort of a sub theme, everyone sorta ranted about COVID and whatnot?
[00:06:36] Terrell Halsey: Yeah. Surprisingly, I mean, in our responses, we did have some people that wished COVID away, but COVID didn’t end up being an essential theme in the project. It was more so, COVID was mentioned in our description because we know, you know, people are isolated, and COVID is going to affect us, you know, whether we wanna admit it or not. That isolation is going to affect us, and it’s affected the art world, and the communities around us…
But a lot of people, just being at their physical home was one that’s new for me to– I didn’t know any of these people– just showing up to their house, and being very trusting of me as a stranger. To come to their house, and trusting me with their stories, and trusting me with their experience… you know, offering me a glass of water, telling me to sit down, you know, make yourself at home, relax… like just that theme of home, just really, it really set in more so from that, and from them. Being with them, at their homes, and the identity of home. What is home? Where is home? Who is home?
As I talked with the collaborating artist, Lyrispect, who is amazing and added everything to this project that, you know, that it needed after the photography… But we just talked about that. And I initially had “Voices from Home.” And after talking, we had a meeting and we just talked, for an hour and change, and we liked the idea of “home,” we liked the idea of evolution, evolving, the city’s changing, there’s COVID, there’s, you know, social unrest, there’s a lot of things going on, and…
The community’s changing. The city’s changing. And we want to tap into that. And we’ve we thought if we included evolving, it would have made people think and want to think about, well, how is it changing? How is it evolving? You know, whether good or bad.
And we thought– Nina thought– Nina (Lyrispect) thought, “Call Home,” you know, instead of “Voices from Home,” “Call Home”– we still have home– as a way to reach back to the community, to connect to the community, and see what’s going on. To check in, you know, “Hey, I’m calling,” you know, if I’m calling home, I wanna know, “Hey, how’s everybody doing? What’s going on there? You know, what are the issues there? What’s good there?”
So we ended with “Call Home: Voices of an Evolving Philadelphia,” and I think it was a strong title for this.
[00:09:17] Roberta: Definitely. It’s a very strong title. As you were talking. I was thinking another interpretation of “call home” is “what do you call home?” “What do you CALL home?” And that’s another deep question that I think you probably got into with a lot of people… right?
[00:09:35] Terrell Halsey: Yes.
[00:09:35] Roberta: Is your home just your building that you actually sleep in, or is it your neighborhood, or is it your city, or, you know, all of the above? What do you call home?
[00:09:47] Terrell Halsey: Right. Most definitely. Community, home, is inside yourself; you gotta take care of inside of yourself. Home can be many different things and many different feelings. There were definitely a lot of, a lot of conversations about that with the different participants. It was amazing.
[00:10:07] Roberta: How did the exhibition come together at iMPeRFeCT Gallery? It seems like that was a perfect space for it, because in a way that is a home for the arts in Germantown, it’s very homey. I know Rocio and Renny and they’re very… they’re “love” people. You just love them; they love people. They make a warm homey atmosphere in their gallery.
So how did that come about?
[00:10:35] Terrell Halsey: Yeah. So we were, we were looking for a venue, and it just so happened that they just came across a new space, that they were going to begin using as a studio. So the first time we saw it, they were getting ready to renovate that space. And we were like, wow, it has so much potential. And how, who would it be to be the first showing in this brand new space of iMPeRFeCT Gallery?
And yet shout out to Rocio and Remmy, thank you guys for hosting the project. And I think it really was the perfect space, and perfect gallery, you know, it felt like… they made it feel like home! They didn’t make it feel like you need to come in and be perfect and, and be a certain way. It just felt like come as you are, bring your work, be genuine you know, let’s enjoy this process.
[00:11:31] Roberta: Marvelous. You had a lot of collaborators in this project, I just want to say. If you consider each one of the homes that you went into, the people that opened up their homes to you as a collaborator, and you had the Painted Bride and you had iMPeRFeCT Gallery, and you also had Lyrispect Ball, Nina “Lyrispect”…
[00:11:51] Terrell Halsey: Yeah.
[00:11:52] Roberta: So how did that come about and how was that partnership?
[00:11:56] Terrell Halsey: Yeah, Nina’s amazing, an amazing artist, and I was happy to be able to cross paths with her and, and work with her on this project.
So Laurel and (os), I proposed my project to them, and, you know, at first, when I proposed it, I said well, it can also be kind of a space… We want it to be a communal space; we wanted it to be a space that allows for interaction; we want it to be a space that allows for conversation. Which is why I wanted to go to the people’s different houses and different neighborhoods, so that hopefully, people from different neighborhoods will come out to the show and be able to converse. So when I propose my idea, I also thought like, oh, it’d be nice to have like a performance and like different types of artists come in and just make it a real, you know, diverse experience that you can take in, in multiple ways.
And Laurel knew Lyrispect. And Laura said, I think Lyrispect will be a good fit for this project. And once I met her online– which is another thing, you know, we didn’t get to meet each other until the night before the show, when we installed everything…
[00:13:10] Roberta: Oh, no kidding. Wow.
[00:13:11] Terrell Halsey: … we had virtual meetings and a lot of phone calls and just worked through all the material and sources– but she was amazing and it was nice to get to know her and her process.
She added poetic prose to the photographs, and to the responses, and to the thought of home just the thought of home. There was a poem that she had about The Lenape people going all the way back to the indigenous people of Philadelphia, which was amazing. It just really linked it, just really linked everything from then to now thinking about, well, if we talk about home, whose home was this land, really? First?
The poetic prose allowed people to take this in, in multiple ways. And I feel like poetry. Is the best compliment for photography. And I’ve said it before.
I feel like photography is visual poetry and the type of photography that I make, I strive to make images that you have to read into, and that you can interpret a little bit more than what meets the eye. So having Nina also add poetic pros to, you know, groups of images, and just give that extra life to it and allow people to experience it in another way, does really made it that much more powerful.
[00:14:39] Roberta: It’s great that you say that photography is visual poetry, or like visual poetry. I think art is like visual poetry and sometimes poets are the best interpreters of art. I really believe that. The best writers about art, too. So did Lyrispect put her words on paper?
[00:15:02] Terrell Halsey: Yeah.
[00:15:03] Roberta: Ah, okay. And they were in the gallery near enough to the photos that people could read?
[00:15:08] Terrell Halsey: Right. Yeah, she ended up framing her poems and you know, sometimes she said well, “this poem fits with this group of images, this poem can go at the start of the exhibit, this one could go near the end.” So she was really thoughtful about where she placed the different poems. And we really allowed people to travel through, kind of take them on a journey through the poetry and imagery.
And she also performed, she performed at the opening and she performed at the closing.
[00:15:40] Roberta: Oh, great. That’s great. Did a lot of the people that you interviewed come to see the show?
[00:15:47] Terrell Halsey: They did. They did. What a feeling that was, what a feeling of joy for me, to see the people come out and see the direct representation of the things that they said to me. A lot of the portraits I strive to just get genuine images of them. I wanted to embody their story and embody their experience.
I didn’t want to just pose them and have them smile and then just get something and… You know, I wanted it to represent them. And when they came I wanna say about four or five of the different participants came to the opening. And they were so happy. They were so happy to see themselves. You know, there’s one participant who actually held a picture of her friend who had passed away from cancer in her image. And, you know, she was tearing up…
You know, just a lot of, a lot of things just really kind of aligned and made it feel special and the opening and the closing night. Just seeing them there was amazing. And being able to interact with them. See how they took everything in, you know? Cause it’s one thing to do the photo, you know, the photo sessions, but it’s another thing for them to come and experience the whole project.
[00:17:08] Roberta: Yeah. Well, and it was, it’s not enough that the project be a survey that you answer. Like it started out as a survey that was sent out with the prompt by Painted Bride, that’s not enough. So to complete it, you want to have that human interaction between the people and then you want to make it be to a larger audience. So you need a space to put it in so that other people can come and see.
What is going to happen to all of what you’ve done? Is it going to be archived somewhere? Who’s, who’s saving all of this? Is the Painted Bride going to try to archive it?
[00:17:49] Terrell Halsey: Yeah, well, I hope so. I, right now I have it, I have my images, but I’m hopeful that this is the end of the line for this project. I feel like, you know, all collaborators put so much into it and we got a lot of great feedback. You know, some people said we can see this as a book; we can see this traveling to the different neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
Like maybe it’s more specific, maybe we focus on Germantown… We had a lot of people from Germantown in this show. And they said, all right, then what if you go to North Philly? What if you go to West Philly? Like what if we break it down by neighborhood? I think there’s a lot of potential for where this could go, and… you know, I think that’s definitely something that can be tapped into.
So I don’t think this is the end of, you know, “Call Home.” I think it’s, it’s the beginning of something.
[00:18:44] Roberta: Yeah, it strikes me that this is something that could be… it could be put in another gallery somewhere. In another part of Philadelphia. And, you know, keep the, keep the love going and the idea of home and people talking about it. You know, it’s nice that you got conversations going. I think that, personally for you was that one of the benefits of this whole project, is the talk that you had with the people as, before you were photographing?
[00:19:20] Terrell Halsey: Oh, yeah. This project, I felt like it’s… It was kind of an alignment of all the things that I’ve been seeking.
As a photographer, you know, I consider myself a photographer, I do make street photography. I do focus on, you know, moments from everyday life to make stories and, you know, make art. But before I was doing a lot of it candidly. And, you know, I would say, I don’t want to disturb the scene. I want to leave it as is. That’s where the, you know, the older great photographers did. And that’s what I want to do.
You know, after, you know, isolation and COVID, and after social unrest and you know, all of the protests and everything going on with race in America. When I finally started going back out to, to photograph people, I wanted to seek to make connections with them. I wanted to talk to them. I wanted to hear their story. I wanted to hear about their day. I want to hear about that shirt that they had on or that hat. I wanted to, you know, get a little more about them instead of just photographing and moving on.
And as I was kind of turning this corner– and it’s funny, I just had a talk about this with one of my friends– and that’s when I got the email from Painted Bride about this project. And I was like, wow, what a perfect opportunity to connect with leaders in Philadelphia, and just everyday people in Philadelphia, and talk to them about their story and their experiences and give them voice and give them representation.
For me, it was, it was everything I’ve been seeking, you know, at that point in time. Just that connection with people. And that also allowed me to, you know, expand my network and talk to different people who are doing different things around Philadelphia. And things that I want to help out. And push as well, so.
[00:21:21] Roberta: I love that that’s it was like, meant to happen. It was meant to be, you know? That doesn’t always happen that way in life (laughs)
[00:21:31] Terrell Halsey: I know, (laughs) I know. It was one of those moments and um… You know, for me, I just kinda felt like, all right, a n opportunity meets preparation. And you know, when I got that email, I said, okay, you know, I’m going to push it forward. And I’m going to see what happens for this project.
[00:21:49] Roberta: So talk a little bit more about the street photography and how it’s changed for you since, being out of COVID, and you’re you want to connect more with people?
I love what’s on your website. People, you should go to his website. We’ll put, tell us what the URL is of your website and your Instagram, too.
[00:22:11] Terrell Halsey: Sure. Yeah. It’s terrellhalsey.com so that’s “T-E-R-R-E-L-L-H-A-L-S-E-Y” .com. And my Instagram is @TerrellHalseyArt and, you know- spelled the same way, first name, last name, “art.”
So definitely follow, you know, follow to see when I’m working on and just keep up with my journey. Of course, all the support is appreciated.
[00:22:36] Roberta: Absolutely. And I love that… let’s talk technically about photography a little bit, since you are, you went to Temple, you were in the Film and Media Arts Department program? So you do video, you do photography…
Can a person who is a photographer, media person, make a living with that art? Is that possible in this day and age? You know, it’s, it’s a tough market for an individual entrepreneur to try to go it alone.
So is Philadelphia a good place for a photographer to try to launch their career?
[00:23:21] Terrell Halsey: Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, the market is very saturated and you know, these days, anybody with a camera can be a photographer, you know? But I, I feel like it is possible, and… You know, I feel like the experiences that I’ve been having have been showing me that it is possible. You just need to keep pushing.
So I don’t think I can speak on it for everyone. I know there’s people who just do photography and they have a full, you know, full business and they’re making a living off of it here in Philadelphia. You know, and I’m sure there’s people who have been doing photography for a while and can’t seem to get their footing in Philadelphia. And there’s also a difference between doing photography as a business and doing photography as an art. For somebody like me that does both, but of course focuses on the art first, you know, does it as a business to provide services for other people and help preserve their memories…
But I feel like it is possible and I’m definitely going to see if it’s possible (laughs) I’m going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing myself as an artist, and also as, you know, an entrepreneur and I feel like the more I learn, the more I… (laughs) the more I learn, the more I’m learning (laughs) the more, the more that I push on, the more that I am learning that you have to be well-rounded as an entrepreneur to make a living in this thing.
There’s talented photographers who are legends to us now, you know, Roy Echeverria is a legend to us now, but he was a mail man during the day. And that was, that was his life. He was a mailman for a long time, and then he started scrambling and getting gigs with ESPN and getting a lot of different things, trying to stay afloat. But the more I read up on him, it didn’t seem like he had a really stable income. He was scrambling.
And the more, the more people I talked to, I’m learning, you have to use your overall skills as an artist. Being an artist isn’t easy, I feel like a lot of people like to say, or make it out to be easy, just think the art is just, “oh, okay, we’re just we’re artists, we…” But it’s not easy. And you, you are entrepreneurs. You have to use the skills that you’ve learned to promote yourself, to be in shows, to reach out to people, to curate, to find other positions, maybe and organizations, that can also, you know, employ you for that. A lot of mentors that I have do that. They’re either teaching or they have a, you know, a position at an organization who promotes photography.
You have to be creative, especially in this day and age, in a saturated market. I don’t want to be starving artist, and I feel like obviously nobody wants to be a starving artists, but how do we, how do we break that? You know, how do we break that? How do we figure that out?
We had to just use our creativity. That’s what a lot of jobs want, is creative problem solvers. What better creative problem solvers are there than artists?
[00:26:54] Roberta: Precisely. Well said, I loved all of that. Very great, great life advice there that you just gave everyone.
I want to say we’re drawing to the close here and I have one question for you. Are you an optimist?
[00:27:12] Terrell Halsey: I am. (laughs) I am, yes. I’m an optimist. I’m a believer in God. I’m a believer in purpose. And I feel like everyone here has a purpose to be fulfilled. You know, for me, I feel like photography and art is a big part of my purpose, is a big part of my voice, and allows me to be able to reach people the most.
I feel like being an optimist is important. You know, this world is a, it can be very dark. I feel like in my household, you know, how I was raised, my parents were always positive people, you know, no matter what was going on. And I know in the environments that they grew up in, they had to be “bigger picture” type people to see beyond and dream beyond where they were at.
And I think they kind of just always carry that and instilled that within us. And I feel like, yeah, now I definitely am an optimist. And I felt like we need to be in order to, to keep our joy and to keep our, our sanity. We had to be able to dream. We had to be able to believe.
You know, with all that’s going on, you know, it’s… there’s no point in fighting for something if you don’t, if you can’t, believe that it’s a possibility to change it. You know, I had somebody ask me with, you know, with all the racial, and racism going on, you know, “do you feel like you can truly be free here in his country, in your lifetime?”
And, you know, it was very deep question. That was somebody who was a, a participant in this project. And that was a good thing about this, is that sometimes they ended up flipping questions back on me. I had to think about it and. It was a really deep question. It was a really tough question. And now at the end of the day, I told them that I feel like I have to believe in order for me to keep pushing and keep fighting for these things. Like, I have to believe.
So even if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, maybe, you know, maybe in the next lifetime or I have a son on the way, maybe my son’s lifetime or maybe their kids’ lifetime, you know? I just feel like, optimism is important, especially in this world.
It’s easy to be negative. It’s easy to be a pessimist. It’s easy to give up. It’s easy to quit, you know? So… I feel like optimism is the way for me.
[00:29:48] Roberta: That was beautifully said. Very beautiful. Thank you.
Is there anything else we haven’t covered that you’d like to say? Any gigs you have coming up or anything you want to shout out?
[00:29:59] Terrell Halsey: Yeah! The only thing I would want to say, is I’ve been working on a project for the last four or five years– which has been exciting as an artist– diving into, me going to center city and photographing and seeing the things that I ended up photographing. And it ends up being, Black and brown people in center city. And I’m diving into my interest in that, and I’m unpacking that. And I’m unpacking how, you know, Black and brown people are taking up space or reclaiming space, in area that’s not necessarily for… you know, for them.
You know, there was a seventh ward where there was a high Black population. And eventually the ended up being out to the outskirts, in West Philly, and North Philly. But it’s just interesting to me that center city– and I felt like it’s the same kind of construct in all major cities– is that the downtown or the center is center city is where all the wealth is concentrated and focused at, and then all the communities that have been red lined or forgotten about… They don’t get those same resources and they don’t get that same wealth. You know, which is… I don’t want to say “which is interesting to me,” but, I’m interested in diving into that and just exploring that.
That was actually, I think that was one of the questions, which would be my wish, is more equitable distribution of wealth to all neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and equitable distribution of resources. You know, whether that’s educational, whether that’s for you know, community centers.
But yeah, I feel like there’s a big disparity between where wealth is concentrated. So the project that I’ve been working on has been focused on Black and brown people in center city, just focusing on them as a source of one art, this everyday life, making art of everyday life, black and brown people. Because I feel like that’s not something that’s seen in the institutions. And so giving them voice and representation to us in that way.
Also just for myself to help me kind of dive into, and understand more, and contextualize what’s going on around me, racially, environmentally, and psychologically in the air. So…
[00:32:34] Roberta: It sounds like an amazing project. I look forward to seeing it and I think you have part of it already on your website, some of it, yeah? Or on your Instagram?
[00:32:44] Terrell Halsey: Some of it, yeah, there’s definitely an image. There’s a little boy. Who’s running through a fountain.
[00:32:49] Roberta: Oh, I love that one.
[00:32:51] Terrell Halsey: Definitely one of the images that I want to be highlighted in that project and the project will kind of follow suit, kind of on that theme, and on that aesthetic.
[00:33:02] Roberta: Cool. It’s beautiful. Thank you so much, Terrell, for talking with us.
I’ve been speaking with Terrell Halsey, photographer, artist, whose project “Call Home” is about voices in the community.
It’s been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for talking with me.
[00:33:22] Terrell Halsey: Of course, thank you for taking time to have me. And it was a pleasure meeting you virtually.
[00:33:26] Roberta: (laughing) Likewise, I hope to meet you in the real world!
[00:33:30] Terrell Halsey: Yes. We will, we will!
[00:33:32] Roberta: Okay, great. Thank you again. Bye bye!
[00:33:35] Terrell Halsey: Yes. Thank you so much. much Bye bye!
